Copper Nickel

Those Oranges We Ate for Christmas

By

as large as the largest planet,
they turned in a ceremonial rotation
of fingers and the desire for sweetness
in flight

until the entire peel fell
on the plate
the weight of desertion
definitive.

–translated from the Catalan by Sharon Dolin

Translation  |  First posted on 12.25.2019
About Gemma Gorga: Gemma Gorga was born in Barcelona in 1968, where she is Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Spanish Literature. She has published six collections of poetry: Ocellania (Birdology, Barcelona, 1997); El desordre de les mans (The Hands’ Disorder, Lleida, 2003); Instruments òptics (Optical Instruments, València, 2005); Llibre dels minuts (Book of Minutes, Barcelona, 2006), which won the Premi Miquel de Palol (2006); Diafragma (Diaphragm, Girona, 2012); and Mur (Wall, Barcelona, 2015), which won the Premi de la Critica de Poesia Catalana. Her seventh collection, Viatge al centre (Vorage to the Center) is forthcoming in 2020.